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NEW YORK (AP) — Eager shoppers across the country set a new single-day spending record on Cyber Monday, even though many retailers stretched special holiday sales offers well beyond this week. The research firm comScore Inc. . reports that online sales Monday jumped 17 percent from last year, totaling nearly $2.04 billion. It represented the heaviest online spending day in history and the first to break the $2 million mark.
FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Another sign that the anger surrounding the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown hasn't eased: Students at three high schools in the Ferguson, Missouri, area walked out of their classes today to express their concerns about a grand jury's decision not to indict the policeman who shot Brown in August. Hundreds of students marched and chanted slogans during their first day back from the Thanksgiving break.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the crazy-quilt of alliances and conflicts that marks the unstable Mideast, it has been revealed that Iran has launched airstrikes against Islamic State militants in eastern Iraq. Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman in Washington, confirmed this today, saying the U.S. believes this may be the first time Tehran has launched manned aircraft from inside Iran to strike targets in Iraq. The U.S. also is fighting the Islamic State group, even as this country and five others are pressuring Iran to agree to a nuclear arms deal.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Religious leaders from a half-dozen faiths have signed on to a new Vatican initiative to end modern-day slavery by 2020, declaring that human trafficking, forced labor and prostitution are crimes against humanity. The declaration commits the signers of the pact to do everything in their power and within their faith communities to work to free the estimated 35 million people enslaved across the world by 2020.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It might be possible to hear a pin drop for this meeting: President Barack Obama tomorrow will host incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for a private talk at the White House. Obama has infuriated Republicans by going it alone on overhauling the country's immigration system. McConnell, for his part, has vowed that Obama will be stopped, once the GOP takes full control when a new Congress is seated next month.
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